Tore down the block the other day. Everything mics up mint. The cylinder bore that is farthest from spec is 2-3 thousands out. But Since it measures that the whole bore, I'm guessing it was machined that way. The crosshatching on the cylinder walls is still very visable. Conecting rod big ends aren't out of round at all. I don't have a spec on what the bearing thickness should be but, they all measure up within a thousands between the side and middle thickness. Considering I ran it down to one quart of oil on the highway before, and it knocked to let me know, I'm pretty impressed! It's really not my fault I ran it so low on oil, had a leak only at higher RPMs I didn't know about, after 3 1/2 hours, it leaked it all! It was actually the fuel pump leaking oil, if you believe it! The reason I tore it apart was because I lost all oil pressure. I couldn't get it primed at all useing a drill, and the oil pump looked fine. So I assume the oil pickup was messed up. Turned out I was right. The screen had some crap on it, but it was also sucked up tight against the tube. So only the part of the screen in front of the tube was being used and it was clogged, so the bypass wouldn't even help it. Got an engine kit coming. Gonna redo the rear axle while the car is down, posi/3.08's. It's gonna be nice, now my entire drivetrain will be fresh. Suspensions all new too... Might even a paint it while the motors out... anywho, It's late, and I'm rambling....
That's cool. Back in 1986, I did my first engine swap. Put a 1968 350-4 engine from a Lesabre into my Lark. This engine had just over 100K miles and all I did was a valvejob, with a high perf cam and lifter kit. After that, I drove and raced the car for over 5 years hit 6,000 RPM a number of times. Went through a few bottles of Nitrous also. When I finally tore the engine down, the cyl. bores were fine, but the bearings were getting a little worn by then! Buicks Rule!
